Hero, scoundrel, or both?

Skeptic — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:35:41 -0800

Among the body of conspirators in the July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler and seize the German government, few were as ambivalent as Count Wolf Heinrich von Helldorf, head of the Berlin police. Although sympathetically (if briefly) portrayed in a recent film about the plot, von Helldorf was a definitely more enigmatic figure. A former member of the Freikorps and participant in the Kapp-Putsch to overthrow the nascent Weimar Republic. Von Helldorf was also an early-hour Nazi who had been arrested in 1931 for his part in anti-Semitic riots. He was acquitted after a spirited defence by Roland Freisler, a Nazi lawyer who would go on to become the infamous president of the "Volksgerichtshof" kangaroo court which sentenced dissidents to the regime, like the July 20th plotters, including von Helldorf himself. Von Helldorf also had a reputation for being a spendthrift and compulsive gambler. As such, he once had a considerable debt with none other than Erik Jan Hanussen, a notorious conman, medium and grand master of ceremonies of the decadent Berlin of the Roaring Twenties. Hanussen, despite being in fact Jewish, cultivated access to the Nazi top. He was nevertheless murdered shortly after accurately "predicting" the Reichstag fire, with von Helldorf a prime suspect both for the leak and the subsequent murder. As police chief first of Potsdam and then of Berlin, von Helldorf eagerly participated in the harassment of Jewish citizens. Still as greedy, he also took advantage of their plight to collect bribes in exchange of passports to leave Germany. However, some sources also suggest that he raged against his subordinates' passivity towards the rioters during the Kristallnacht. From 1938, apparently spooked by the Nazis' warmongering, he seems to have started approaching conservative dissident circles, a gradual movement which culminated in his part in the July 20th plot. Whether his involvement was due to a sudden case of principles, or rather to his well-proven opportunism, he was to pay dearly for it: of all the conspirators, none attracted as much hatred from Hitler and Himmler as the "traitor" von Helldorf, whose gambling debts they had personally taken care of in the past. For possibly the only decent act in his life, von Helldorf was tortured, publicly humiliated and sentenced to death by hanging with a piano wire. Hitler personally ordered that von Helldorf be executed the last of four, so that he would have to watch the long agony of the others.

History Repeats and Hollywood Remakes

wendell — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:44:43 -0800

You know the trouble with Historically-Based Movies? Unless you're an uneducated, ignorant moran, you know how they're gonna end. At least that's the argument of this Premiere article on 10 Movie Endings Spoiled By History. Of course there are ways to avoid that problem, as Cracked.com's (yeah, them) 11 Movies Saved by Historical Inaccuracy declares. Books have been written about Historical Movies' accuracy or inaccuracy, and everybody has an opinion on what the Best Historical Movies are, but if you want your History purely entertaining, there's only one ~~man~~dog you can count on: here are Mr. Peabody, Sherman and the original Wayback Machine dropping in on Cristopher Columbus, Pancho Villa and Francisco Pizarro and the Incas (sorry, no USA History episodes on YouTube). Notes: "300" is the only movie on both the 'Spoiled by History' and 'Saved by Historical Inaccuracy' lists. But it was the inclusion of the Star Wars Prequels on Premiere's 'History' list that motivated me to make this post. What The Frak?!? And the first episode of Peabody's Improbable History is less about history and more about adoption issues that are still relevant today.

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Hero, scoundrel, or both?

History Repeats and Hollywood Remakes